This should be marked "off topic", but since we have a "joke of the week and this one is too goodto relegate to the bottom of the pile, I'm trying this one here.

It isn't a joke. It's for real. But maybe there is a lesson here? (pun intended) (Taken from today's Wall Street Journal online "Best of the Web".

Great Moments in Public Education"A Jefferson County [Colo.] geography teacher was placed on paid administrative on the second day of school for hanging several flags from other countries in his classroom," Denver's KMGH-TV reports.

The school district placed Eric Hamlin, a teacher at Carmody Middle School, "on administrative leave for insubordination, citing a Colorado law that makes it illegal to display foreign flags permanently in schools. . . . The school's principal escorted Hamlin out of class Wednesday morning after he refused to remove the flags of China and Mexico."

A district spokesman tells the station: "Under state law, foreign flags can only be in the classroom because it's tied to the curriculum." And what subject does Hamlin teaching?

Uh, world geography.

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Comment: And we wonder what's wrong with public education? What are our kids going todo when they want to be bus nuts? Oh yeah. I forgot; those who can *do*. Those whocan't *teach*. Those who can't teach become school administrators. School administrationsoften become a joke unto themselves. -- pathtic, this.

You're right, it is a sad truth, but school administrations and school boards are turning our public schools into a joke.

I have several acquaintances that are long term career public school teachers. At least two of them have expressed that they are considering giving up teaching or trying to find a private school to teach at. Not because of difficult students, violence in schools or even inadequate pay. Rather it is because school administrators are becoming more concerned with being politically correct, sensitive and tolerant than about being effective at teaching basic skills to the students.